In September 2020, Sony’s interactive hallway in Lund office, Sweden, is showcasing what Sony is doing for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Synecoculture project at Sony CSL was featured as a global initiative that tackles SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.
Synecoculture™
Conventional agriculture largely focuses on increasing
productivity from a single crop, by plowing top soil, spreading
fertilizer, and applying pesticides based on the characteristics
of the crop. These practices damage ecosystems and
cause environmental problems. Sony Computer Science
Laboratories, Inc. (Sony CSL) is testing applications for
Synecoculture, a sustainable agricultural practice that
highly balances productivity and biodiversity. Synecoculture
eliminates the need for plowing, fertilizing, and pesticide use
that impact the environment, by taking maximum advantage
of the material cycling that occurs naturally in ecosystems,
aiming to create rich ecosystems with a diverse mix of plants
that coexist together and grow lushly. Synecoculture requires
vast knowledge of plant ecology, and for several years
Sony CSL has been conducting tests at a number of farms,
cultivating a blend of plants in order to collect data on plant
compatibility and soil conditions. Sony CSL is also using IT to
develop systems to support greater social ecological diversity
including Synecoculture. The Synecoculture project is directly
related to 11 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and is registered as a good corporate practice with
the Japan SDGs Action Platform promoted by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Japan.
森ビル株式会社が主催する、未来を担う子供たちへ新しい体験の可能性を提供するキッズワークショップに、Sony CSLより協生農法のチームが参加し、ワークショップ「いつもは見えない生態系ネットワークの存在について学ぼう！」を開催しました。
Sweden Foodtech, in collaboration with Sony CSL and CARFS, submitted a Synecoculture project to the Food System Vision Prize of the Rockefeller Foundation, and awarded as a semi-finalist.
See our final proposal here and read the full refined vision here.
An article on Synecoculture appeared in Sony’s Technology 2020, a special issue on the technology of Sony’s in-house magazine “Sony Family.”
舩橋真俊が、以下の作品に協生農法・拡張生態系に関する情報提供しました。
WIRED 2020 vol.37『SFがプロトタイプする未来』p.78 津久井五月氏の短編『地下に吹く風、屋上の土/UNDERGROUND WIND, ROOFTOP’S SOIL』
株式会社BIOTOPEが北鎌倉・建長寺で開催したフォーラム「Ecological Memes Forum2019〜あいだの回復〜」の体験セッションの一つとして開催された協生理論学習キットのワークショップのレポートが、BIOTOPE TIDE に掲載されました。
A short movie on Synecoculture and MMS is online, which was prepared for the FAO Global Symposium on Soil Biodiversity (GSOBI20) that is postponed for the moment.
